Twitch lets viewers tip more broadcasters by ‘Cheering’
To entice top broadcasters to its streaming service (and make a cut from their tips), Twitch recently introduced “Cheering.” It lets viewers spend actual cash to purchase “Bits,” which they can then lavish on streamers by sending animated chat “emotes.” The streamer gets to keep that money, minus Twitch’s hefty 30 percent cut. Cheering has been in beta for just 100 broadcasters, but the Amazon-owned company announced that it’s now available to all 11,000 or so partner streamers in the US and UK.
As a refresher, Bits are a hard-currency version of third-party rewards like AmazeBalls, which lets streamers reward viewers the longer they watch. You can purchase Bits at the rate of $1.40 for a hundred, then tip by typing “cheer” followed by the number of bits. So entering “cheer200” nets your favorite broadcaster $2.00, while Twitch takes an 80 cent cut for a total of $2.80. Pledging higher amounts gets you “more vibrant Bits emotes” and special badges, Twitch says — so users also get a Candy Crush-style dopamine rush for pledging.
On the one hand, viewers can tip a streamer the instant they do something great, and broadcasters can give a shout-out back (via bots from Muxy and others), so everyone gets the warm-and-fuzzies. On the other, if you just tip with PayPal, the streamer gets to keep a lot more than 70 percent of the money. For that reason (and Twitch’s early lack of transparency on its fees) the initial user reaction was mostly negative. With the latest expansion, however, it seems that Cheering is here to stay.
Samsung Pass will give you secure banking via an iris scan
At Samsung’s Unpacked 2016 event, the company revealed that its Galaxy Note 7 will have a futuristic new way to sign in: an iris scanner. It’ll do much more than just unlock your phone, though. The Korean company also revealed Samsung Pass, a new security system that will let you access banking and other chores using your eyeballs. Samsung says that it’s working with Bank of America, Citibank, US Bank and other firms on the new tech.
The iris scanner has reportedly been in the works for five years, and will also let you lock up folders, apps and other content. Samsung also implied that its Samsung Pass app would work with other authentication methods, presumably codes, fingerprints and the like. Other details are scant, but we’ll update you if we hear more.
Jessica Chastain and Jake Gyllenhaal will star in ‘The Division’
Ubisoft’s mission to bring another of its major franchises to the big screen has been given a boost after the company confirmed The Division movie’s first big stars. As predicted last month, Jake Gyllenhaal has signed onto the project alongside Interstellar and Zero Dark Thirty actress Jessica Chastain. As agents, they’ll combine to help restore a dystopian New York that has been decimated by a lethal strain of smallpox and has become host to powerful criminal gangs.
Details are scarce, but both Chastain and Gyllenhaal will offer production assistance via their own companies. Gyllenhaal, in particular, will be keen to avoid a second box office bomb after Prince of Persia failed to attract audiences. Ubisoft says the city’s pandemic-stricken streets host “countless stories of love, loss, treachery, and heroism” but won’t comment on the direction of the script just yet.
As well as The Division, Ubisoft Motion Pictures is working on big-screen adaptations of Splinter Cell, Ghost Recon, Watch Dogs, Rabbids and, of course, Assassin’s Creed. The Michael Fassbender-led flick will hit screens on December 21st.
Source: Ubisoft Blog
How to watch the 2016 Rio Olympics
The summer Olympics are just a few days away, and whether or not you’re a sports fan, chances are you’ll want to keep up with everything that happens in Rio de Janeiro. Thankfully, you’ll have many options to watch this year’s games. But before we tell you how to tune in, you should know the event officially kicks off on August 5th, but certain competitions begin earlier. For instance, soccer (aka football) has games on August 3rd, starting with the women’s match between Brazil and China. There’s also going to be gymnastics training that day. Whatever your favorite sport may be, NBCUniversal is going to have those of you in the U.S. covered — even in virtual reality.
For cable or satellite customers
Pay-TV subscribers have it easy. NBCUniversal will broadcast more than 2,000 hours of Olympics coverage across 11 different networks, all owned by the company itself. These include Bravo, CNBC, Golf Channel, MSNBC, NBC Sports Network, USA Network and NBC. Spanish speakers, meanwhile, can keep up with the games on Telemundo and NBC Universo. If you’re a soccer buff, you’ll definitely want to tune into these two often from August 3rd to the 20th.
In a major shift compared to London 2012, some of the big television providers have big plans for 4K this year. Comcast, DirecTV and Dish have announced that they’ll be serving up 83 hours of Ultra HD content from the Rio Olympics. The only caveat is that most of it won’t be live, but this is still a perfect opportunity to put your shiny, new 4K TV to good use. The opening and closing ceremonies will be available in 4K on a 2.5-hour delay, while content from other events (such as basketball, swimming and track and field) is expected to hit the on-demand Rio 2016 portal the next day.
Whether you’re subscribed to Comcast, DirecTV or Dish, keep in mind you’ll need a 4K set-top box (and TV) to take advantage of this feature. So if you don’t have one yet, you have a couple days to try to make it happen. It’s unfortunate that FiOS, Time Warner Cable and U-verse customers will miss out on 4K content, but at least they can still watch in regular HD.
Watch on your phone or tablet, if you have a pay-TV login
People with pay-TV logins, even borrowed ones, won’t have much trouble watching the games away from home. NBCUniversal plans to stream 4,500 hours of Olympics programming, including live events, at NBCOlympics.com and thorough its NBC Sports App on smartphones, tablets and connected TVs. The application is available for iOS, Android, some Windows mobile devices, Roku, Apple TV and Amazon’s Fire TV. Not surprisingly, as mentioned earlier, having access to NBC’s TV Everywhere offering will require an account from a cable or satellite TV provider.
Olympics in VR
What a time to be alive! Virtual reality is everywhere: The medium is being used for different purposes across a variety of genres, such as education, film and in-home entertainment. Now, as part of its efforts to let viewers experience the Olympics in new ways, NBCUniversal will have more than 85 hours of programming available in virtual reality. The 360-degree video treatment is coming to a few different sports, including men’s basketball, gymnastics and track and field. But the content won’t be there for everyone. Aside from requiring a pay-TV login, it will be streamed exclusively on Samsung’s Gear VR headset.
Olympic athletes demoed Samsung’s Gear VR last year.
Cord-cutters
During the 2014 World Cup, Univision did the unthinkable: It let people in the U.S. stream every game up until the knockout round without a pay-TV account. But that’s clearly not a route NBCUniversal is willing to take. Cord-cutters have limited options for watching the Olympics. The obvious one is getting an over-the-air antenna though that only gets you access to NBC and Telemundo. For what it’s worth, the opening and closing ceremonies, plus most of Team USA’s bigger events, will be broadcasted on NBC. Telemundo, on the other hand, comes in handy for the Latino population and anyone who loves soccer.
Now, if you have Sling TV, you’re in luck. And if you don’t, you may want to think about getting an account, even if it’s only for the month of August. With the Sling TV Blue package, which costs $25 per month, you’ll have access to NBCUniversal’s NBC Sports Network, USA Network and Bravo. You also get NBC, but only if you’re in Chicago, New York, the Bay Area, Los Angeles, San Diego, Philadelphia, Dallas and Fort Worth, Miami and Fort Lauderdale, Hartford and New Haven and, finally, Washington, DC.
Sling TV also offers the Golf Channel and, for Spanish speakers, Telemundo and NBC Universo, but you’ll need the Sports Extra and Best of Spanish TV $5 add-ons. That said, the service is running a promotion for the Olympics in which it’ll offer a free preview of CNBC and MSNBC, giving viewers access to those channels at no additional cost until the Rio Olympics’ end. As a refresher, Sling TV works on the web, iOS, Android, Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Fire TV, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku and Xbox One.
PlayStation Vue’s Elite Slim plan channel list.
You’ll get a similar deal with Sony’s PlayStation Vue, which offers plans starting at $30 per month. The cord-cutter service has apps for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Roku, iOS and Android, giving you the option to watch on a TV or mobile device. You’ll want to pay for the $45 Elite Slim plan though, as that’s the one that includes every channel from NBCUniversal.
Pay-TV customer or cord-cutter, you’ll want to check out the official schedule to find out when every Olympic event is happening. Because the last thing you want to do is miss Usain Bolt get yet another gold medal in the men’s 100m.
Feds give Google OK to test Project Wing drone deliveries
The US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) has been very cautious about drone testing in the US so far, but that’s about to change. The White House has announced that Google has been given permission to test its Project Wing delivery services at six FAA-sanctioned test sites. The flights will be part of a new push by the US National Science Foundation, which is spending over $35 million on unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) research and testing over the next five years
Google’s Project Wing drones, first revealed in 2014, actually take off vertically then fly like a fixed-wing plane, making them a lot different from Amazon’s drones. Although it’s technically against the rules, the search giant has been testing deliveries over private land in the US already by exploiting a NASA waiver. According to a White House fact sheet, Google will not only test drones with cargo that work beyond line-of-site, but also “develop and deploy an open-interface, airspace management solution for safe low-altitude operations.”
The initiatives were unveiled during a big shindig today, with a keynote from US Chief Technology Office Megan Smith, FAA Administrator Michael Huerta and Intel CEO Bryan Krzanich. The White House emphasized that government must be more flexible about allowing companies to test tech like drones in America. Amazon, for one, recently announced that the FAA’s restrictive rules would force it to test its services in the UK.
FAA chief Huerta cited rescue operations and crop dusting as two big areas where drones could assist or replace manned aircraft. “Just last week, two people were killed in two different accidents involving crop dusters – exactly the type of job a small unmanned aircraft could do with much less risk to people and property on the ground,” he said.
Apple and OpenTV Enter Patent License Agreement Under Undisclosed Financial Terms
The Kudelski Group today announced that it has “entered into a comprehensive patent license agreement” with Apple, stating that both parties agree to finally dismiss all current and pending patent litigation. The case stems from an original lawsuit back in 2014 that saw software maker OpenTV — a wholly owned subsidiary of The Kudelski Group — sue Apple in a German court due to its alleged violation of three streaming video patent violations.
OpenTV kept going after Apple throughout the years, with a lawsuit filed in the United States in 2015 that focused on five new patent violations enacted by the Cupertino company, including the claim that iTunes infringes upon one of its patents. Earlier this year, the same German court from the original 2014 case ruled that Apple violated OpenTV’s digital streaming patents and was subsequently ordered to cease selling products that included software potentially infringing on OpenTV’s patents, namely the iPhone and iPad.
OpenTV was founded in 1994 and sees its primary business focused on the creation of operating systems and software for set-top-boxes. The company is currently focused on its broadcast and digital television platform — also called OpenTV — that’s available as an on-demand video service for users around the world. Although the turmoil between Apple and OpenTV appears to be dying down, the specific financial terms reached between the two companies weren’t disclosed in today’s announcement.
Tags: iTunes, OpenTV, Patent lawsuits
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Bloomberg Radio Comes to Apple Music in 120 Countries
Bloomberg today announced that its Bloomberg Radio service is now available on Apple Music in over 100 countries around the world, including the United States, Germany, Hong Kong, and Japan.
Bloomberg Radio features global business and financial news coverage from top Bloomberg journalists 24 hours a day. Regularly scheduled shows include “The Bloomberg Advantage,” “Taking Stock,” “Bloomberg Law,” and more.
For more than 20 years Bloomberg Radio has been known for its breaking business coverage, global news, market updates and interviews with economists and world leaders. As Apple continues to innovate with new apps and products, we are excited to be able to offer their customers new ways to engage with Bloomberg Radio and other Bloomberg content.
Bloomberg Radio, accessible via the Radio tab in Apple Music, is one of the few Apple Music radio stations that offers news rather than music. Listed in the “Sports & News” category, Bloomberg Radio is free for all listeners like other news stations. An Apple ID is all that is required to log in and listen.
At the beginning of this year, Apple stopped offering free iTunes Radio streaming and began requiring an Apple Music subscription to listen to radio channels. An Apple Music subscription is required for music-based radio stations, but it is not required for news-based radio stations.
Bloomberg Radio is available to all Apple users with an Apple ID as of this morning.
Tag: Apple Music
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With keyboard shortcuts, Gmail = great mail – CNET
If you spend hours each week using Gmail on a computer, these keyboard shortcuts can save you hours of your time.
Gmail splits its keyboard shortcuts into two groups: those that are always on and those that need to be enabled.
Always on
Open a message
You can use the up- and down-arrow keys to move through your inbox; you’ll see a thin, blue, vertical line move along the left edge of your inbox as you hit the arrow keys. To open a message, hit Enter.
Navigate a conversation
When you are viewing an email conversation, hit the N key to move to the next message in the conversation and the P key to move to the previous message. Hit the Enter key to expand and collapse messages in a conversation.
Need to enable
To enable the following shortcuts, open Gmail and hit Shift-? and then click the Enable button below the list of commands.
You can also access this menu by clicking the gear icon in the upper-right corner and clicking Settings. In the Keyboard shortcuts section, select Keyboard shortcuts on before clicking Save Changes at the bottom of the page.
Compose new message
Hit the C key to compose a new message. Use Shift-C to compose a message in a new window, and hit the K key to compose a message in a new tab.
Move to next or previous email
When you have an email open, hit the J key to move to the next email in your inbox and the K key to move to the previous email.
Refresh or return to inbox
Hit the U key to refresh your inbox or return to the inbox view if you have an email open.
Select a message
To select a message from your inbox view (that is, check its box), move the vertical blue line to it and hit the X key.
Mute conversation
Select a conversation and hit the M key to mute it. Muting archives a conversation and keeps all future rely alls to it out of your inbox. If a message from the conversation is sent or cc’d directly to you, then it’ll still appear in your inbox.
Trash or archive
With a message or messages selected in your inbox, hit the the # key to move it or them to the trash. (# = Shift-3). To archive instead of trashing a message, hit the E key.
Star conversation
When viewing your inbox, hit the S key to star a conversation. You don’t need to have a conversation selected to star it; you need only to move the thin, blue line next to the conversation. Hit S again to remove the star.
Reply, reply all and forward
When you have a conversation open, hit the R key to reply to it. Hit the A key to reply all. Also, the F key lets you forward a conversation. Press Shift with any of these commands and you’ll reply, reply all or forward in a new window.
Send it
Hit Tab-Enter to send a message.
Go to commands
There are a number of commands using the G key. The most helpful are these six:
- G+A — go to all mail
- G+I — go to inbox
- G+S — go to starred messages
- G+D — go to drafts
- G+T — go to sent mail
- G+C — go to contacts list
Asterisk commands
There are a number of commands using the * key, which is Shift-8 in practice. The most helpful are these three:
- *+A — select all mail
- *+N — deselect all mail
- *+U — select all unread mail
I use this last keyboard shortcut combo all the time. If I had to name a favorite, this would be it. It’s so handy to be able to select all of the unread messages in my current inbox view and be able to mark them as read or move them to the trash.
For the complete list of Gmail shortcuts, see this Google support page.
I hired an online dermatologist. Here’s what happened – CNET
Recently I’ve had some less-than-stellar experiences with doctors. When I went to a podiatrist for help with a foot issue, he seemed stumped and offered a smattering of wild-guess suggestions. (None of them worked.)
When I went to a vision clinic for an eye exam and updated prescription, I waited 45 minutes to actually get into the exam room and another 25 minutes before I threw my hands up and left. (Note to doctors everywhere: Work on your customer service. If there’s a delay, acknowledge it and apologize for it. In 47 years I’ve never experienced that simple courtesy.)
So when I realized I needed to see a dermatologist, I really didn’t want to see a dermatologist. I wanted to explain my symptoms and see if maybe there was an ointment that could fix me up. Like, if I passed a dermatologist in the street, it would probably take 60 seconds.
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Dermatology apps rely on your phone to snap photos of the problem area(s).
Screenshot by Rick Broida/CNET
But that’s not how it works. The typical process for such a thing:
- Look up dermatologists in my healthcare provider’s directory and hope to find one reasonably close to where I live.
- Call to schedule an appointment.
- Wait probably 2-3 weeks to get that appointment.
- Drive to the dermatologist’s office.
- Fill out countless forms while waiting god-knows-how-long to get seen.
- Spend five minutes with a doctor who says something like, “Yeah, that’s Eczema, here’s a prescription.”
- Drive to drugstore, get prescription filled.
- Get ridiculous bill from healthcare provider, which maybe covers part of it, but definitely not the co-pay.
Sounds great, right? So much time and energy down the drain. And yet my problem — red, itchy, flaky skin in a few areas of my face — was getting worse.
Apps to the rescue!
I’d heard of online consultations with doctors, but I always thought those were general practitioners focused on things like coughs and allergies.
As it turns out, there are numerous apps that can pair you with a dermatologist for a virtual consultation — usually powered by the camera in your phone. I looked at four such apps and tried one. Here’s the rundown, with my initial impressions of each and the reason I chose the one I chose.
DermatologistOnCall (iOS) – Promising to diagnose “more than 3,000 skin, hair and nail conditions,” DermatologistOnCall charges $59 per online visit — but I was quickly scared off by the push to purchase a multi-visit package (starting at $165 for three).
First Derm (Android|iOS) – To use First Derm, you snap two pictures of your skin, then get an evaluation and recommendation from one of about a dozen dermatologists. However, the only issues covered are rashes and moles. You can get a response within 48 hours for $24.99; within 24 hours for $39.99; or within eight hours for $99.99.
SkyMD (Android|iOS) – Before letting you do anything else (or revealing its pricing), SkyMD requires you to create an account. Nope, sorry, not until I know what I’m getting (and paying). Even the SkyMD FAQ page says only that it’s “usually comparable to a typical office visit copay.”
Spruce (Android|iOS) With some of the best ratings on both the App Store and Google Play and a reasonable-seeming visit fee of $40, Spruce seemed like a good pick. However, it’s currently available in only about 15 states. Luckily, mine was among them, but the app starts by asking you to identify your issue: acne, Rosacea, etc. I didn’t know exactly what my issue was; that’s what I needed help with. Unfortunately, there was no “I don’t know” or “I’m not sure” option.
First, Derm no harm
I was really tempted to go with Spruce, but the reality is I’m cheap. I felt like if I was going to have another unsatisfying (and unhelpful) medical experience, I was going to pay as little as possible. (Yeah, my bad attitude wasn’t helping anything. Maybe next I’ll look for online therapists.)
So I chose First Derm. I figured the redness and itchiness qualified as “rash,” so I tapped through and began the evaluation process. It was simple: snap two photos of the area (in this case my face), then describe the symptoms.
As for the pricing tiers, I had no problem waiting 48 hours for my diagnosis. So I used PayPal (there’s no in-app purchase option for payment), checked out, and that was it. I think the entire “visit” took about five minutes.
“Cleanup on aisle 12!”
Then I waited. I’d expected some kind of confirmation and/or status e-mail, but I never received one. And as I got toward the end of the 48-hour window, I started to get a little aggravated.
Then I realized I hadn’t actually checked the app since submitting my case. When I opened it again, there was still no indication anything had been done. But when I tapped the Menu button and selected View Case, I discovered that an answer had been received — less than 90 minutes after the submission.
So, my bad for not checking back sooner, and First Derm’s bad for not notifying me of a response. (In its defense, notifications for the app were “off” in the settings, so it’s possible I’d refused the request to enable them. That’s my default choice.)
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One annoying thing about First Derm: There’s no way to save, share or export your evaluation. (Best you can do is snap a screenshot.)
Screenshot by Rick Broida/CNET
The “diagnosis” (which was provided “as general information only” and “not a diagnosis or treatment plan”) suggested Seborrheic Eczema and proceeded to list the various symptoms — all of which matched mine to a tee. The recommendation: “a mild steroid cream such as hydrocortisone 1% with antifungal effect (e.g. miconazole).”
Although the response didn’t expressly indicate this was available OTC, the key clue was in the conclusion: “See a dermatologist in person for prescription medication if the condition doesn’t improve.”
So I zipped up to my local drugstore and headed to the ointment aisle. Turns out there are zillions of skin creams, many of them with hydrocortisone. But I looked and looked and couldn’t find a single one with “antifungal effect” or “miconazole.”
Luckily, an OTC remedy was all I needed.
I did, however, find a product specifically designed to treat Eczema — which, according to my virtual doc, is what I have! So although I was aggravated I couldn’t find exactly what had been recommended, I did find something.
Long story shortened: Bought the tube, used it for a couple days… problem solved. Like, literally, it was better the next morning, and hasn’t recurred except for a short period when I forgot to apply the cream.
Could I have received the same advice from, say, my friendly neighborhood pharmacist? Almost certainly. Am I glad I didn’t go through all the hassles of seeing a real-world doc? No — I’m overjoyed. To my thinking this was $25 extremely well spent, because I saved both time and aggravation (even if there was still a bit of the latter).
Your mileage will almost certainly vary, depending on your skin issue and the app you choose. In hindsight, I think I’d have gone with Spruce, because it promises a proper diagnosis and treatment plan (with a prescription, if necessary), not just “general information.”
That said, my outcome with First Derm was ultimately very positive, so you can bet that the next time I have a skin issue, one of these apps will be my first stop.
Your move, eye doctors.
How to download and install the Windows 10 Anniversary Update – CNET
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Microsoft’s Windows 10 Anniversary Edition has arrived.
Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET
The first major update to Windows 10 — the Windows 10 Anniversary Update — starts rolling out to all users today. This update brings several changes to the operating system, including visual modifications, improvements to the Edge browser and new features such as Windows Ink.
See also:15 things to look forward to in the Windows 10 Anniversary Update
You don’t need to do anything to get the update. Windows 10 automatically scans for, downloads and installs new updates on your device (though the Anniversary Update will require a restart). But if you wait for Windows Update to automatically update your device, you may not get the update right away — the Anniversary Update is being rolled out slowly, which means it won’t immediately be available to all users.
If you’re impatient, you can try manually prompting Windows Update to download the Anniversary Update. Note that this may not get you your update any quicker, especially if Microsoft’s servers are bogged down with people updating.
- Open the Settings menu and go to Update & security > Windows Update.
- Click Check for updates to prompt your PC to scan for the latest updates. The update will be downloaded and installed automatically.
- Click Restart Now to restart your PC and complete the installation process.
This is the only way to get the Windows 10 Anniversary Update at the moment. There are two other updating methods that have been mentioned online, but, as of right now, neither of them will help you get the Anniversary Update any faster (or at all).
- Enroll in the Windows Insider Program: Windows Insiders have had access to the features and changes present in the Anniversary Update for some time now, and anyone can enroll their device in the Windows Insider Program. But the Windows Insider Program takes several days (maybe weeks) to activate, which means you will not receive the latest Windows Insider build immediately upon signing up for the program.
- Manually install the update using the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool: The Windows 10 Media Creation Tool allows you to create your own Windows 10 installation media (USB, DVD or ISO) to perform a clean installation of the operating system. The Media Creation Tool has not been updated to include the Anniversary Update, so if you attempt to update your system using media created with this tool, you will simply end up re-installing Windows 10. We have no information on when Microsoft will update the Media Creation Tool to include the Anniversary Update.
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